The Land and the Community. 145 



native sources and converted by native industry into vendible 

 commodities, realised thrice the profits in the foreign market 

 that the same amount of similar goods manufactured out of 

 foreign materials would do. From such a contention he lays 

 down another fundamental principle; viz., "Never to obstruct 

 or in any measure discredit the sale of the native cultivator's 

 products in the favour of the people employed in the manu- 

 facture of foreign commodities." In the other case, that where 

 the raw material was a native product, such as in the indus- 

 tries connected with wool and leather, he modifies his hostile 

 attitude so far as to inculcate the more benevolent doctrine 

 that it is a wise policy to '•'"'harmonise'''' agriculture and manu- 

 factures, so that " if one is in need of encouragement, it ought 

 ever to receive it, if possible, without prejudicing the other." 



But one of the mercantilists ^ had asserted that though the 

 agricultural industry might not be able to flourish without 

 the bounties, they, by serving to feed foreigners cheaper than 

 our own people, and by enhancing the prices of native foods, 

 increased the costs of production and drove trade from the 

 country. "Foreigners," said he, "never buy provisions till 

 they want them, and then they must have them, whether they 

 give bounties or no." " Bounties on exported corn and fish 

 and flesh, therefore, only serve to feed the French cheaper 

 than our own people, and enable them to undersell our manu- 

 facturers in the silk, wool, and linen markets." Many others, 

 such as Sir James Stewart, united in blaming the bounty 

 system for the high price of provisions. 



Now Young had taken the average values of wheat for the 

 fourteen years previous to the introduction of bounties, and 

 found the price to be £3 lis. per quarter, while for a similar 

 period afterwards he had made it out to be £3 2s. hd. ; or, as 

 we have said earlier in this chapter, prices had dropped in- 

 stead of risen since the introduction of the bounty system. 

 Young is not, however, to be supposed to have credited the 

 policy of encouraging exportation with these results, but only 

 that it had helped to widen the area of tillage land, and thus 



^ An Essay on the Causes of the Decline of Foreign Trade, p. 30. Sir 

 Matthew Decker, 1744. 



U. L 



